


Belief

by JCapasso



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:34:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 19,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23559184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JCapasso/pseuds/JCapasso
Summary: What if Azrael had told Ella who she really was when they met? And told her a little about her family?
Relationships: Ella Lopez/Lucifer Morningstar
Comments: 80
Kudos: 278





	1. Chapter 1

Lucifer got to the crime scene and stopped short at the sight of the woman with horns sticking out of her head. He completely failed to convince the detective that it had something to do with him though. He didn’t notice the new girl until the detective went to talk to her douche of an ex. “You’re a newbie aren’t you?” he asked, hoping that he hadn’t been crude enough to just have not noticed her before.

“Oh, hey, yeah,” she hugged him in greeting. “Ella Lopez. I just transferred in a couple days ago. You must be Detective Decker’s civilian consultant,” she said perkily.

“Lucifer. Morningstar,” he introduced himself.

“Cool,” she said with a nod, turning back to her field kit.

Lucifer was slightly taken aback at that. “I was expecting a different reaction considering your choice of bling,” he pointed to the crucifix around her neck.

“Oh. Dude. I had a friend named Adolf, okay. Adolf. I didn’t hold it against him,” she told him with a shrug. “Besides. I think the devil gets a bad rap.”

“Oh? You do, do you?” Lucifer asked in satisfaction.

“Yeah, I mean…what’d he do that was so bad? What, rebel against his dad? Ask some naked lady if she wanted an apple?” If that was all it took she’d probably have been damned a hundred times over by now.

“Be still my heart,” Lucifer drawled pleasantly. “Do go on.”

“I suppose he does run hell,” she added thoughtfully. “That’s not so great, you know, with the torture and eternal damnation.”

Lucifer’s smile turned to a frown. “I’m retired. And besides, I didn’t create hell. I just worked there,” he tried to defend himself.

Ella looked at him weirdly. “Aaand now you’re talking in the first person…wait…are you…”

“The devil?”

“A method actor? Ugh,” she groaned. She hated method actors.

“What?” Lucifer asked surprised. “I most certainly am not,” he said offended. 

“Riiiight,” Ella said skeptically. “So if you’re really the devil then you must know Rae-Rae.” 

“My sister Azrael goes by that moniker,” Lucifer said without thinking. Once he realized what she asked him he turned to scrutinize her suspiciously. 

Ella froze in shock. Maybe he really was the devil. She shook it off almost immediately though and decided that wasn’t enough of a test. “Oh? What’s she like?” she asked casually. 

They were interrupted by Chloe coming back over before he could answer, but he did manage to corner her later on long enough to say. “I own a club in the city. Lux. Come by after work tonight and take the elevator upstairs. We’ll talk then.” He didn’t give her a chance to answer before he headed back to the detective. Lucifer left about two hours before the end of the day since there was nothing else to do but wait for a warrant and he was more than a little unsettled by the new forensic scientist. 

Once she noticed that Lucifer left, Ella went over to Chloe. “Hey, can I ask you something?” 

“What is it?” Chloe replied curiously. 

“Well, it’s about Lucifer…what?” she asked when Chloe rolled her eyes. 

“Nothing. Sorry. Go on,” Chloe prompted. 

“I was just wondering…can he be trusted? I mean…is he safe?” 

Chloe looked at her in surprise. That hadn’t been the question she was expecting. “Safe how?” 

“I mean if I end up alone with him do I need to worry about him hurting me?” she asked. She wasn’t really worried about the whole devil thing, having gotten the real story from Rae-Rae years ago, but she was a young single woman considering going alone to the home of a man she didn’t really know.

Chloe chuckled. “Lucifer? No. He wouldn’t hurt anyone unless he had to and then not badly. I mean, he’d almost certainly try to get you in bed, but he does take no for an answer.”

Ella relaxed and made her final decision about tonight. “Okay. Thanks.” 

When Lucifer got home, he pulled out one of his hell-forged blades and tucked it up his sleeve even before grabbing a drink. Once he had a drink in hand, he could turn his attention to clearer security measures. He made sure that everything in the penthouse that could actually hurt him, meaning any other hell-forged weapons that Maze had lying around, were either put up in the closet or on his person. By the time Ella arrived later, he was a bundle of nerves, not that he would show it at all. 

Lucifer saw the elevator doors opening and sat back in the armchair, “Good evening Ms. Lopez. Feel free to help yourself to a drink.” 

Ella shook her head and headed over, sitting gingerly on the edge of the couch. “You’re not gonna attack me or something are you?” 

“What? Because I’m the devil?” he scoffed. 

“No, because you’ve got this whole creepy stalker sitting in the dark vibe going on right now and it’s kinda creeping me out,” she said with a nervous chuckle. 

“The lights are on,” he pointed out, his amusement not quite enough to push through his nerves. 

“I know, but still,” she shrugged. “And you didn’t answer my question.”

“You have my word that I won’t attack first,” was all he would promise. 

Ella looked confused at his words. “Wait…/you’re/ scared of /me/?” she asked incredulously. “I thought you were the devil?” 

“I am,” Lucifer said evenly. “But I don’t know what you are or why you’re here. All I know of you so far is that you’re in contact with my family who would most likely see me dead if given half a chance.” 

Ella goggled at him. “So…what? You think I’m some kind of assassin or something?” 

“The thought has crossed my mind, yes.”

Ella burst into helpless laughter, almost falling off the couch, and that was enough to relax Lucifer a fraction, but not a whole lot. It took a minute for her to get control of herself enough to answer his suspicions. “I-I’m not,” she stammered through her chuckles. “Here, I’ll show you.” She got up and held her arms out, turning a slow circle. She was wearing a tight pair of jeans, tennis shoes, and a tight fitting t-shirt so there was nowhere she could conceivably hide a weapon. Then she emptied her purse on the table. If this was what it took for him to loose the whole creeper vibe and relax, she didn’t mind. It wasn’t like she had anything secret. “There. No weapons. I’m just a normal everyday human. Convinced now?” 

“Mostly,” Lucifer nodded as he relaxed a lot more and pulled the blade from his sleeve, setting it on the table next to him. Close enough to grab if he needed to, but there as a warning. 

“Woah. Wicked knife,” she said in awe, feeling much safer now. She knew that most people wouldn’t have, but the fact that he’d had it completely hidden and she didn’t see it before he set it aside, told her that he wasn’t planning on using it unless it was necessary. She almost asked to see it, but realized that wouldn’t go over well after having to assure him that she didn’t have any weapons. “Where’d you get it?” she asked instead. 

“Hell,” Lucifer said simply. “How do you know my sister?” he asked her. 

“First you have to answer my question from before,” Ella said. “Tell me what she’s like.” She still needed to make sure that he was who she was starting to suspect he actually was. 

Lucifer narrowed his eyes at her for a moment before nodding. He didn’t see the point of the question, but could see no harm in answering it. “She’s a little shorter than you, round face, she used to wear her hair in a short bob but that was a long time ago. She has a tendency to babble, especially when she’s nervous or excited,” Lucifer got a nostalgic smile on his face remembering it. “She could go on for hours when she found something interesting…” He shook off the memories and wiped his face blank. “She also had a tendency to use rather odd turns of phrase such as ‘smell you later’.” 

Ella laughed. “So you really are the devil then.”

“Your turn. How do you know my sister?” Lucifer asked, not responding to her comment. 

“When I was, like, eight, I was in this bad car accident and she came. I was just about to go with her and then I was waking up in an ambulance. It was the weirdest sensation. After that she just started hanging around. I was a little freaked out when she told me that she was the angel of death and she’d been there because I was basically dead for a bit, but I got over it and we became friends,” she explained. “Oh and she most definitely doesn’t want you dead. She says you’re her favorite brother.” 

Lucifer scoffed. “Oh yes. Her favorite brother that she abandoned in hell for millennia.” 

Ella shrugged a little uncomfortably. “I don’t know about all that. That’s something you should probably talk to her about.” She didn’t really like getting in the middle of sibling spats. She had enough of her own and she knew how prickly they could be. 

“Of course. My apologies Ms. Lopez,” Lucifer said charmingly, at least assured that she wasn’t intending to harm him. “I was getting ready to start dinner if you’d like to stay. I’m sure you have many questions for me,” he suggested as he got up, taking the blade on the table to put in the closet with the rest. Just because he was relatively assured of her intentions didn’t mean there was any reason to be careless.


	2. Chapter 2

When Ella agreed to stay for dinner, Lucifer went to the kitchen and started to cook up a simple pasta dish. “So how is my sister doing?” Lucifer asked conversationally, despite not being sure he wanted to know. 

“I haven’t really seen her in a few years,” Ella said sheepishly. “We kinda…agreed not to see each other anymore after an…incident.” 

“Oh? What kind of incident?” 

“There was an accident. A guy died. I don’t really want to talk about it,” Ella said morosely. 

“I understand,” Lucifer said with a nod, knowing now that there wouldn’t be any friendship to come out of this. If she couldn’t handle seeing Azrael doing her job then she certainly wouldn’t be able to handle being friends with the devil. She was obviously still here to simply assuage her curiosity. “Well you must have questions for me,” he said leadingly. 

“Yeah, I do. If you don’t mind…”

“Not at all. Fire away,” Lucifer offered. 

“Well, I pretty much know what all happened with the fall and everything from Rae-Rae, but she never mentioned anything about hell…” 

“That would be because dear sister has never seen fit to step a foot there,” Lucifer said, trying to keep the bitterness from his voice. 

“Right. Well. What’s it like? What kind of torture do you do there? How does it work?” 

“Well first of all, I feel the need to point out that I do not torture. I simply oversee the process. The human souls torture themselves more than enough by trapping themselves in a loop of their moments of greatest guilt or fear,” he started answering her questions. 

By the time dinner was wrapped up and she was leaving, he had answered all of her questions. She knew nearly everything he was willing to share about hell, and he resigned himself to never seeing her again. At least outside of work. I may take a bit of time for her to put in for a transfer and he wasn’t sure if she would quit or keep working until it came through. 

The next morning, he was slightly surprised to see her still at work, but decided to avoid her as much as possible so that she wouldn’t be uncomfortable. It was a few days before the case was finished and she cornered him in the break room, just as he was stealing a pudding. “Why are you avoiding me?” she asked him. 

Lucifer turned and looked at her slightly confused. “I was simply aiding you in your efforts to avoid me.”

“Why would I be avoiding you?” she asked, completely confused. 

“Well I realized that if you are unable to handle seeing my sister do her job then being around me would be even more difficult,” he said simply. At the affronted look on her face he added, “There is no shame in it Ms. Lopez. The fact that you don’t despise me and recoil in horror makes you a step above other humans alone.” 

Ella reached out and punched him lightly in the arm. “Okay, I can see how you might have gotten that impression from what I said, but you’re wrong.” She took a deep breath and resigned herself to telling the story anyway. “It had nothing to do with seeing her do her angel of death thing. It was because it was my fault.”

“I don’t understand,” Lucifer said, tilting his head. What would that have to do with not wanting Azrael around anymore. 

“See we were walking down the street and there was this beam falling. I tackled Rae-Rae out of the way on instinct. I mean, I know she couldn’t have been hurt by it and she wasn’t even visible to anyone else, but I didn’t have time to think. It just…happened. Then the other guy who I could have saved instead died and I almost ended up in a mental institution since people had seen me talking to someone invisible and tackle someone who wasn’t there. That was what scared me. Not her.” 

Lucifer nodded thoughtfully. “I see. You feared human perception of your relationship,” he reasoned nonjudgmentally.

“No, I…um…” Ella tried to defend herself but stopped when she realized that she couldn’t. He wasn’t actually wrong, even if she didn’t want to see it that way. 

“It’s completely understandable,” Lucifer assured her. “You are a human and thus subject to their perceptions. They matter to you.” 

Ella felt the tears welling up in her eyes at that. “I’m a horrible friend,” she said sadly as they started to fall. She had never considered it that way, but he was right. She had thrown away her best friend because of what other people might think. The fact that he wasn’t judging her for it just made it worse. 

Lucifer suddenly found himself with a crying woman and had no idea what to do. “Ms. Lopez? Do you…um…need a hug…or something?” he asked uncomfortably, fully intending to find someone to carry out the task if she did. 

“Yeah,” she said barrelling into him and hugging him around the middle. 

Lucifer stiffened for a moment, suppressing his sigh before he hesitantly hugged her back. 

That night when he got home, he finally made a decision saying to the empty room. “Azrael. I would like to speak with you.” 

A moment later he heard the rustle of wings and a sheepish, “Hey Lu.”

“Hello Azrael,” he drawled in what was almost a sneer. 

“What? Too cool to call me Rae-Rae anymore?” she tried to break the ice. 

“Endearing nicknames are reserved for siblings who didn’t abandon me for millennia,” he said coldly, not that there were any of those. 

Lucifer scoffed when she tried to defend herself with the excuse of being busy and she couldn’t really blame him. It was true that far fewer people died back then than did now and she’d still found time to strike up a friendship with Ella. It wasn’t like she could tell him what she /had/ been busy with though, so she didn’t exactly have a better choice. Eventually she managed to talk him around though and accept the fact that she didn’t hate him and that she wanted her brother back and they spent an enjoyable hour catching up. 

When Azrael learned about their mother escaping hell and being on Earth, she paled. This wasn’t good at all. “Wh-what are you going to do?” she asked. 

“Find her and stuff her back into hell of course,” he told her. “What else should I do?” 

Azrael sighed a bit in relief. “Okay, good. Just…make sure she’s really secure this time.” She wasn’t sure if that was the best plan with him not being there to keep her under control, but until or unless she had a better one. “And please don’t tell her I’m around? Amenadiel either.” 

“Don’t worry,” Lucifer waved her off. “I don’t plan to tell Mother anything and I won’t get you in trouble with Amenadiel either. Just be careful popping in. He comes to annoy me from time to time.” 

“Thanks, Lu. You’re the best. I just really don’t want to have to deal with either of them.” 

Once she left him, Rae-Rae headed to the abandoned warehouse that she was more than a little familiar with by now. “Are you here?” she called. 

“I’m here Azrael. I hope you’ve made some progress,” her contact stated as he stepped from the shadows. 

“Yeah. He called me just like you said he would. We’re back to being friends again now,” she told him. 

“Good. I’m glad to hear it. That means we can move forward.” 

“Are you sure this is the best way?” she asked worriedly. “You know he won’t be happy…”

“It’s the only way, Azrael. Trust me on that. There are no guarantees, but this is the only plan with even a small chance of success.” 

She sighed. “I know. That doesn’t mean I like it though,” she said petulantly. She knew how much Lucifer hated being manipulated, and he would eventually find out. 

“None of us do,” he told her. “But you’re clear on your job?” 

She nodded. “Yeah. I know what I have to do, but there is a complication.” 

“What kind of complication?” he asked in irritation. 

“Mother’s escaped from hell. She’s here on earth,” Azrael told him bracing for the explosion. 

“WHAT?!” Azrael’s companion paced in irritation, clearly trying to see how this would affect their plans. “I hope she doesn’t know about you?” 

Azrael shook her head. “No. I convinced Lu that I didn’t want anything to do with her and to keep my presence a secret. From Amenadiel too.”

He sighed in relief. “Good. That’s good. We might still be able to salvage this then. I need to think,” he said in dismissal. 

“I’ll find you if I have anything new to report,” she told him before flying away.


	3. Chapter 3

Roughly an hour after Azrael left, the elevator opened, discharging a rather attractive but very unkempt woman. It took a moment for Lucifer to realize it was his mother. Naturally, he was more than a little bit skeptical of her story, but eventually agreed to investigate it. During the investigation, Ella cornered him alone and asked, “Do you do this often? Find your own cases, I mean?” 

“Not usually. This one simply has a rather…personal element,” Lucifer told her. 

“What kind of personal element?” she asked. “If you don’t mind my asking.”

“Our missing body is currently inhabited by my mother,” Lucifer said wryly. 

“Your mother as in…”

“The goddess of all creation, yes,” he finished for her. 

“Wow,” Ella said with wide eyes. 

“We usually try not to encourage him in these things, Ella,” Chloe said with a chuckle as she walked by, catching the end of the conversation. 

“We can talk later if you want to meet for dinner. I would offer Lux but I have a bit of a mothering houseguest at the moment,” Lucifer suggested. 

“Yeah, that works,” Ella agreed and they quickly made plans. 

Lucifer being Lucifer, the place they ended up at was rather fancy, and the first thing Ella asked when she sat down was, “Is this a date?” She wasn’t sure what she wanted the answer to be. 

Lucifer chuckled. “I can see why you might think that, but it’s not my intention, no. There is no reason we can’t have a nice meal while attempting to escape my mother.” 

Ella laughed along with him and nodded. “Makes sense,” she said perusing the menu even as she asked, ‘So your mother huh? Rae-Rae never mentioned her mother to me.”

“I’m not surprised. She’s not the type of person one generally wants to talk about,” Lucifer told her. 

“So why are you working so hard on this case for her?” 

“It’s not for her. It’s to prove that she’s lying so I can send her back to hell with a clear conscience,” Lucifer explained. 

Ella nodded, making note of the fact that he was so diligent in making sure she deserved it first, regardless of why she was sent to hell in the first place. Which brought up the question… “Why was she there to begin with?”

“I never asked,” Lucifer said with a shrug. “It wasn’t my place to. She just showed up one day so I did my job.”

“But if /you’re/ going to be the one to put her there you want to be sure it’s deserved,” she said knowingly, getting a nod in return. She was beginning to realize that there was a lot more to the devil than met the eye. Over the course of their meal, the little bit she’d managed to get him to open up on the subject of his mother, revealed that he was more damaged than she would have thought and craved nothing more than love and acceptance, but only on his terms. 

They had just finished eating and were contemplating dessert when Maze came rushing in and whispered in his ear. Lucifer sighed and set the menu down. “So sorry to eat and run darling, but it appears my dear mother has slipped her leash.”

“Do you need some help tracking her down?” Ella asked. 

“How can you help?” Maze scoffed. 

“I’ve got some skills that could be useful,” she said cryptically. 

Lucifer shrugged. “Okay, come on,” he told her as they got up and left. 

As they were heading out, Maze hissed quietly, “Lucifer she’s a human! How are you going to explain the whole…you know.”

Ella laughed and moved up next to them. “You do know that we humans do have ears too right?”

“Quite,” Lucifer chuckled and told Maze, “Not to worry. She knows everything.” 

Maze raised an eyebrow at her. “And you’re still here?” 

“Yup,” Ella said. “I’m guessing you’re the demon Mazikeen? Lucifer described you pretty well.” 

Maze narrowed her eyes and looked Ella up and down before nodding as they all split to their own cars. Ella knew that Lucifer didn’t have a phone so it wasn’t likely he had a computer either. Luckily she never went anywhere without her laptop and quickly had it hooked up in the penthouse once they arrived. “I’m surprised you have wifi when you don’t have a computer,” she said as she connected. 

“That’s more for the benefit of the club. Not only to do the patrons enjoy it, but the deejay insists on it,” Lucifer told her. 

“Makes sense,” she said as she started searching, hacking into multiple different systems. “Here we go. She just used a credit card at a grocery store a few blocks away.” 

“Excellent,” Lucifer said, patting himself on the back for getting her involved. “You stay here. Maze and I can handle this part.” 

“Aww man. I wanted to be part of the takedown,” she pouted. 

“Oh let her come,” Maze said. “If she’s gonna be hanging around she’ll be a part of this anyway.” 

Lucifer just shrugged and headed out, Maze and Ella following him. Unfortunately, the detective was there also following the same lead and Ella snorted a laugh when Lucifer stabbed her in the arm and her indignant face. Chloe reluctantly let Lucifer take her home in protective custody, giving Ella a weird look for being with him, but not saying anything. She hadn’t noticed Maze who had been setting up for an ambush if it was needed. 

Once they got back to the penthouse, Ella went to introduce herself. “Hi, I’m Ella. I’m a friend of Lucifer and…” she was cut off by an elbow to the side by Lucifer and quickly corrected her initial intended response to, “Maze.” She had almost forgotten that Lucifer mentioned that Rae-Rae didn’t want their mother to know she was around. 

“Yes. You’re a human aren’t you?” the goddess asked curling up her nose. When Ella nodded she said, “then perhaps you can answer a few questions for me about this…world.” 

“I’m sure she can mother, but perhaps another time. Ms. Lopez was just getting ready to leave,” Lucifer cut in giving her a pointed look. 

“Yeah. Early day tomorrow and all. I’m getting pretty tired,” she said feigning a yawn before making her escape. She’d learned enough about the goddess to know that if Lucifer was rushing her out it was for a good reason. 

Lucifer breathed a sigh of relief when she was gone. He was grateful for her help, but he didn’t really want her in his mother’s sphere of influence. He assured Maze that he had it covered now and thanked her for her help too and then they were alone, and he was praying to Amenadiel to come take her back to hell. Unfortunately, his brother didn’t answer and he didn’t dare ask Azrael. It would break her confidence and she would see it as a betrayal. Sis was all nice and sweet most of the time, but you really didn’t want to piss her off. 

By the time they got the case wrapped up, Lucifer learned that his mother had been telling the truth which made him more willing to listen when she tried to tell him the true story of what happened so long ago. By the time he heard her out, he was glad that Amenadiel had never answered his calls. He couldn’t bring himself to send her back to hell after that. 

Lucifer managed to find some alone time with Ella the next day at the precinct to give her an update on his mother, along with what she’d told him. Ella hugged him, glad that he had his mom back in some way and that she wasn’t a total bitch, despite the fact that something in that story didn’t quite ring true to her. She chalked it up as her faith just protesting against the idea of God not being all that virtuous, and pushed it aside. 

Since that was settled, she decided to ask him about something else she’d been meaning to talk about ever since he let slip at dinner the other night that he’d talked to his sister. “I was wondering…do you think maybe…one night…”

Lucifer grinned and jumped in seeing that she was having trouble getting the words out. “All you had to do is say the word Ms. Lopez,” he drawled. “I will happily clear my schedule.” 

It took her a minute to dawn on her what he was suggesting and her eyes widened. “No, no. Th-that’s not what I meant,” she said smacking him in the arm. “I was gonna ask if we could hang out at your place sometime with Rae-Rae. I mean, I owe her an apology and really want to fix things, but…”

“It’s been so long it seems weird now?” Lucifer huffed a laugh, remembering his sister making that same claim in regards to him. 

“Yeah. Something like that,” she said with a smile, glad that he understood. 

“I’ll see what I can do, but it might take a bit of time to figure out what to do with Mum first,” Lucifer told her. 

“Okay, that’s cool. Whenever you can,” Ella assured him with a smile, hugging him again to which Lucifer rolled his eyes and hugged her back awkwardly. He was almost getting used to hugs from her.


	4. Chapter 4

Azrael got the call and headed to the warehouse. “I’m here,” she called. 

“Thank you for coming, Azrael. I have news.” 

“What kind of news?” she asked curiously. 

“Lucifer has decided against sending Mother back to hell,” he told her. 

“What?!” she yelled. 

“Easy Azrael. This is why I called you. This is a good thing.”

“It is?” she asked worriedly. 

“Well not exactly, but given the circumstances it’s the least bad thing,” he explained. “She knows now that she can get out. If he sends her back and he’s not there to control her…”

Azrael’s eyes widened as she realized what he was saying. “Right. Yeah. That would be bad.” 

“Very much so. He’ll call you soon, once he sets her punishment. You should support him in his decision, but it is even more imperative than ever that she not know of you or me.” 

“But if she’ll be around Lucifer, how can I do my part in this?” she asked confused. 

“She won’t be around all the time and when she is, you’ll just have to come at it from the other angle.”

She sucked in a sharp breath. “You realize that will piss him off even more right?” 

“I know, but as long as you are subtle enough, it should be manageable. It is still the best option.” 

“Okay,” she sighed. “I know how much is riding on this, so you know I’ll do my part even when I hate it.” 

“And that’s why you were chosen, Azrael,” he said as he disappeared in a whoosh of wings.

It was another week before Azrael got the call from Lucifer and she showed up in his penthouse to see another guest there too as Lucifer was setting the table. “Ella!” she squealed running towards the human girl. 

“Rae-Rae!” Ella replied accepting the hug gratefully. “I’m so sorry I sent you away. I was just scared of what people would think and I shouldn’t have been because you were my best friend and you deserved better than that…” 

Lucifer laughed as the babbling went back and forth between them for a few minutes, both of them apologizing and forgiving each other for dozens of different things and offering unnecessary explanations. When he had enough, he just cleared his throat. “Dinner’s ready,” he said pointedly as he sat down. 

They both laughed and joined him at the table. The meal was spent in pleasant conversation where more than a few embarrassing stories were shared about both Lucifer and Ella by Azrael. The angel of death couldn’t help but be pleased with herself every time Ella blushed or Lucifer shifted uncomfortably. It wasn’t until the end of the evening when Lucifer brought up the big subject. “I’ve decided that Mum is going to serve her punishment here on Earth.”

“How so?” Azrael asked curiously. 

“She despises humans, which is why her punishment is to be one. She has assumed the life of her vessel, husband, children, job and all,” Lucifer explained. 

“If you think that’s best,” Azrael told him. “But I still want nothing to do with her. You still can’t tell anyone I’m around.” 

“You have my word,” Lucifer told her. “Until you tell me otherwise, no one but the two of us will know of you,” he gestured to himself and Ella. 

“I don’t mind if you tell other humans discreetly,” Azrael told them both. “Just not Mom or Amenadiel.” 

“We won’t,” Ella added her promise to the mix. With that Azrael said that she had to go and left Lucifer and Ella alone. 

They talked for a few more hours before Ella headed home with a little spring in her step. It had been a great night. She got her best friend back, was becoming closer friends with Lucifer, and got more than a few nuggets of gold about his past to tease him about. She was beginning to realize that Lucifer was easily the most complex person…being she had ever known. Every time she thought she had him figured out, another layer would be revealed. She did love puzzles though, so she relished the challenge. 

Lucifer was feeling pretty good that night too as he laid down in bed. He was surprised that Azrael supported him despite obviously hating their mother. It made him feel good to know that at least one member of his family was on his side. While he wished that Azrael had kept some of the stories of his past to herself, he comforted himself with the fact that he got an equal amount of dirt on dear Ella. 

Over the next few weeks, there were a couple more such evenings spent with Ella and his sister. Only when he could be sure that his mother would be far away. He’d spent some time with each of them alone as well, and he was beginning to realize what had attracted Azrael to Ms. Lopez so much in the first place. She was just so positive all the time and had a way of making him feel almost good about himself. It was a novel experience for the devil. 

Azrael popped in at least a couple times a week to hang out with Ella, and they spent a lot of it talking, sometimes about Lucifer. They were getting back to being as close as they used to be. The angel of death did take care to limit her appearances while other people were around though, not wanting to risk Ella by someone else finding out before she was ready to share. 

A few weeks after the full reunion, Azrael got another message and headed to the warehouse again. “Is everything okay?” she asked. 

“I was going to ask you the same thing. You haven’t made much progress.” 

“I know,” she sighed. “You know how stubborn Lucifer is though. I’m getting there,” she assured him. 

“Unfortunately, we’re just about out of time. Drastic measures must be taken,” he said as he stepped towards her. “Know that I take no pleasure in this, sister,” he said as he reached forward and snatched her blade from her belt and ran it through her side. 

“U-Uriel…why?” she gasped as she fell to the floor. 

“Because it’s the only way,” he said sadly. “I’m sorry.” He lifted her up and carried her to the back room, laying her gently on the bed before he flew away to set up his trap. 

A couple days later, Ella noticed Lucifer being very jittery and hovering around Chloe. She wanted to ask him what was up, but he never left the detective’s side and she had a feeling that conversation wasn’t one that he wanted to share with her. She did try to go by Lux that night, but he wasn’t there. She even tried texting him on his new phone now that he finally got one, but didn’t get a response so she just put it out of her mind and waited to see him again. 

Lucifer ended up on the rooftop with Uriel once again as his time was up. “For a brief moment, the pattern faltered. I thought it meant you'd actually bring Mom. That somehow, you'd surprise me. 'Cause for once in my life, I'd like to be surprised, but no. No, here you are. Are you done hiding behind our big brother's skirt?” Uriel said as he arrived. 

“Yes, it's just me now. Big, bad Lucifer,” Lucifer said coldly, fully prepared to fight his way out of this. 

“We've already had this fight before, Lucifer. Right here. You see, in my head, I've seen everything you do. I've heard every dumb quip you have to say.”

“Right, let me guess... in your version, I deliver Mom to you, apologizing, tears streaming down my face,” Lucifer said sarcastically. 

“Actually, no. In my version, you refuse to give Mom up and your human friend dies,” he lied. Chloe Decker wouldn’t be dying here tonight. There was a choice for Lucifer to make but she was never a part of it. He just needed his brother to think she was. 

“Yes, you've tried that twice now. Not much luck. Maybe you're not as good at this as you thought,” Lucifer scoffed. 

“Maybe I'm building up to a big finale?” Uriel asked, and he was. It just wasn’t the finale Lucifer was expecting. 

“Uriel... you don't know what Dad wants. None of us do. So I think...”

“You're right. I don't know what Dad wants. None of us do,” he admitted. 

“Right. Great, well, I'm glad we had this talk. I'll see you at the next family reunion. I'll buy the first round,” Lucifer said confused. 

“But I do know what he needs. Mom's out. It's only a matter of time before she finds her way back to Heaven, and then he'll forgive her,” Uriel half lied. Dad wasn’t in any position to forgive anyone, but she would find her way back to heaven eventually if they couldn’t stop it and then it would all be over. 

“He would never do that,” Lucifer rolled his eyes. 

“Why not? You did. She's been here, like, what... three minutes? Now you're already defending her. Dad'll do the same thing. He'll let His guard down. And then she'll destroy Him. I need to make sure that doesn't happen,” Uriel said firmly. 

“That's Azrael's Blade. How do you have it?” Lucifer asked worriedly. 

“I borrowed it off the Angel of Death when she wasn't looking.”

“You're not planning on taking Mom back to Hell. That weapon will wipe her out of existence entirely. No Heaven, no Hell, just... just gone,” Lucifer asked in shock. 

“Finally, a moment of clarity between us,” Uriel said smugly. 

“You've gone completely insane, brother,” Lucifer told him with wide eyes. “Azrael!” he called. She could recall the blade to her hand and end this. 

“She can’t hear you anymore, brother,” Uriel smirked, allowing the blow from Lucifer to hit him. He let a few more land as well before he started fighting back earnestly. He had Lucifer’s patterns now and he needed him to get a lot more angry than he was now if his plan was going to have any chance of succeeding. 

Once he had Lucifer on the ground, barely conscious, he almost started the end game, but then he was interrupted by a demon so he had one more fight to get through. When Azrael’s blade flew from his hand, he made sure that it landed near Lucifer. That was the most crucial part of this. Once the demon was down, he headed back over to the keyboard. “Now since you’ve made this so difficult for me, both Mom AND the detective will die,” he said, reaching slowly for the keyboard and trying not to think of what was about to happen. 

Losing his own existence certainly wasn’t his preferred outcome here, but if Mom couldn’t be removed from the picture, it was the only option. He gasped as the blade slid through his side and he could immediately tell that it was a death blow. He saw the broken expression in Lucifer’s eyes as he lowered him to the ground and felt terrible for it, but sometimes people had to be broken before they could be fixed. He couldn’t resist giving his beloved brother one last piece of advice though. “The peace is here,” he whispered, knowing it would have a double meaning, but Lucifer wouldn’t likely figure more than one of them out. 

Lucifer looked down at the blood on his hands and choked a sob as he cradled his brother’s body. “He was my brother,” he whispered brokenly at Maze’s comment. “He was my brother,” he said again even softer as she left.


	5. Chapter 5

When Ella got to the crime scene on Monday morning, she immediately realized that there was something very wrong with Lucifer and frowned at the way Chloe kept trying to corral him and tell him off. Couldn’t she see that he was in pain? Ella tried multiple times over the course of the day to get close to him, but never quite managed, so she headed straight to Lux after work only to find the doors closed and the bouncer outside not letting anyone in. Her worry grew exponentially. He NEVER locked Lux. Even when they were officially closed. 

When she asked what was wrong, the only reason the bouncer answered was because he knew that she was an actual friend to Lucifer. He didn’t exactly know a lot anyway. “Boss had a bit of a meltdown and threw everyone out. Locked the doors and said if I let anyone in then it was my job. Otherwise I’d let you go,” he said apologetically. 

“No, it’s okay. I don’t want you to lose your job,” Ella told him, pulling out her phone and trying to call him. When he didn’t answer, she tried a text instead. After a few minutes she tried calling him again before she gave up with a sigh. The bouncer gave her a sympathetic look as she finally turned and left. He had hoped it would work. Like all the employees there, and half the city, he loved his boss (though completely platonically) and hated to see him hurting. 

Ella didn’t sleep well that night out of worry for Lucifer and when she got the call to the crime scene the next day at the medical supply place and got there to find Chloe berating Lucifer for being stupid and telling him that he needed to get his act together, Ella decided that it was time to figure this out once and for all. Screw waiting for an opportunity to talk to him. She would make one. She walked over and interrupted the detective mid-rant and grabbed Lucifer’s arm, dragging him over to a bench nearby, but far enough that they wouldn’t be overheard. 

Chloe watched in surprise as Ella manhandled her partner and shoved him to sitting on the bench. When Lucifer put his head in his hands, Ella knelt in front of him. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but she saw Ella gasp and cover her mouth at one point. A moment later she wrapped her arms around him and kissed the top of his head with her own tears streaming down her cheeks and now Chloe was even more curious about what was going on, and feeling more than a little bad for yelling at him. It had been more from worry than anger though. Her worry only grew when she saw his hands fall and wrap around her clutching her like a life-raft and she was sure that she could spot tears on his cheeks too. 

Ella pushed him down onto the bench and knelt in front of him as he leaned forward, fisting his hands in his hair as his elbows rested on his knees. “What’s going on, Lu? Talk to me,” she coaxed gently. 

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he muttered. “Don’t want to think about it either.” 

She reached out and put her hands on his knees, rubbing her thumbs over his elbows. “I know, but you need to or it’s going to eat you alive.” 

“I’m a monster,” he said in a tiny voice. 

Ella shook her head. “No, Lu. You’re not. Whatever happened, whatever you did, you could never be a monster.” 

“I killed my brother,” he blurted out. “M-my own brother.”

Ella gasped in horror as a hand flew to her mouth. “What happened?” she asked softly. Lucifer spilled the whole story. The ultimatum, the refusal, the blade, the fight, all of it. About halfway through Ella leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. Her own tears that she had been holding back since he started began to flow when he got to the part about Azrael possibly being dead. By the time he finished, she could feel the tears falling on her shirt and she said firmly, “You are NOT a monster, Lu. Not even close. You did what you had to do. You saved lives. He’s the one who decided that it would cost his own. Not you. Please understand that.” 

Lucifer finally released his hair and moved his hands down around her waist, clutching at her as he cried, lifting his head enough so that it fell on her shoulder. “I-I can’t,” he rasped brokenly. 

She just held him and whispered what she hoped were soothing words until he had himself back under some semblance of control. When he let her go, she sat back a little bit and put her hands to the side of his face to make him look at her. “Now I’m going to go let Chloe know that we’re taking the rest of the day off…”

“You don’t have to…” he interrupted her. 

“It’s not up for discussion,” she interrupted right back. “You are my friend and you’re hurting and you need me. That’s far more important to me than any job. It’ll be fine.” 

“Wh-what are you going to tell her?” Lucifer asked weakly. 

“Only what’s necessary to make her understand,” Ella told him. 

“You’re not going to tell her that I…” 

“Lu,” she said firmly before he finished and when he looked at her with a broken expression in his eyes, she said softly, “Trust me.”

He nodded slowly. “I do.” 

“Then wait here and I’ll be right back,” she told him, pressing one more kiss to the top of his head as she got up. 

“Is he okay?” Chloe asked worriedly when Ella walked up. 

“Not really. He’s gonna take a few days off. Probably the rest of the week. I’m going with him at least for today. I’ll call Maria to come process the crime scene for me.” 

“What happened?” 

“One of his brothers was violently killed and his sister is missing. He blames himself because of a fight they had,” she explained. 

Chloe gasped and covered her own mouth in shock. “Oh god…” she said horrified, looking at him in sympathy to see that his head was back in his hands. “How do you do that?” she asked in surprise. “Get him to talk so easily. I’ve been trying for two days…”

“You just have to understand him,” she told Chloe. “Don’t try and pick apart everything he says and just accept what you can get from it.” 

Chloe nodded slowly and sighed. She didn’t think she would ever be able to do that. It just wasn’t in her nature. She wanted to ask about their relationship, but realized that now wasn’t the time so she just said, “take care of him.” 

“I’ll try. I’ll call in tomorrow if he’s still too bad off to be left alone,” Ella promised as she headed back to Lucifer. 

Once she got him into the penthouse, he immediately went for the booze, but she stopped him and steered him to the couch. “I’ll get it,” she promised. She had no intention of trying to keep him from drinking right now. She knew that it didn’t affect him the way it did humans and just having a drink in his hand had a calming affect on him. She sat him down and headed back for the bar, pouring him a full glass of scotch and bringing the bottle back with her for refills. 

“You’re not having any?” he asked hoarsely. He was sure that she knew she was welcome to anything in here without having to ask. 

She shook her head. “Not right now. Maybe later.” She reached over to rub his back as he sipped on the drink in silence for a while. 

Lucifer didn’t start talking until after his first refill. “You don’t have to just sit here with me, you know.” 

“I know,” she told him. “I’m here because I want to be. Because I don’t want you to have to deal with this alone. I want you to know you can count on me.” She worded them all as I statements because she knew that if she phrased it as what he needed then he would feel guilty and try to get her to go. 

“I do,” he assured her. “But that doesn’t mean you have to risk your job to babysit me. I’ll be fine.” 

“I know you’ll be fine,” she said with a smile. “You’re stronger than you think and you’ll bounce back from this. But you’re not fine now, and you don’t need a babysitter, but you do need a friend. Besides, if I get in trouble at work I’ll just set you on them and let you charm them into fixing it,” she teased bumping his shoulder with hers. 

Lucifer let out a hoarse laugh as some of the tension fled from him. He had no idea how she did that. Ten minutes ago he felt like he was being ripped apart from the inside out and just like that she had made it hurt so much less. He turned to look at her in awe only to end up lost in her sympathetic eyes. He didn’t even realize what he was doing when he leaned in and kissed her softly.


	6. Chapter 6

She kissed him back for a moment before he jerked back. “I-I’m sorry…” he said breathlessly. He really hoped he didn’t screw up the one friendship he actually had. 

Ella shook her head and put her hand to the side of his neck. “It’s fine, Lu. You’re grieving and in pain. It’s natural to reach out for any scrap of comfort you can get.” She leaned forward and pressed another short kiss to his lips. “See? It doesn’t have to be weird.” He visibly relaxed and huffed out a relieved breath. “That doesn’t mean I’m going to have sex with you though,” she teased with a chuckle. 

He let out an actual laugh as he shook his head. “Well there goes that idea,” he joked. That was the end of the moment of levity as he slumped a bit and leaned back, taking a long drink. “I just…I can’t even wrap my head around all this right now. It seems almost like a horrible nightmare that I can’t wake up from.”

Ella nodded and leaned against his side. “I know,” she said sadly. “I can’t even imagine what you must be going through.”

They sat there the rest of the evening and into the night, ordering Chinese for dinner, which was eaten on the couch to Lucifer’s feigned horror. Ella had gotten more than a few stories about Uriel from before the fall and she had trouble equating those stories with the person that Lucifer had been forced to kill. She figured that was probably what was hitting him the hardest. She knew that people could change, but Lucifer hadn’t been around to see that change so to him, the person he killed was the one that used to follow him around everywhere like a puppy and that just made it so much harder. 

When Ella noticed him starting to get tired, she got up and grabbed his hand to pull him to his feet. “Come on. Let’s get you to bed, shall we?” He chuckled weakly, but allowed her to drag him to his room. Once there she stripped down to his shorts without shame and got into bed. Ella walked around the other side and took off her jeans, leaving her tshirt and underwear on before climbing into bed too. “You don’t mind do you? I’m a little too tired to drive home tonight.”

Lucifer held out his arm in invitation as he shook his head. “Not at all, darling,” he said with a grateful smile. He hadn’t really wanted to be alone tonight. She snuggled up to his side and they were soon asleep. She woke to the alarm on her phone the next morning to find herself alone in bed and stretched before getting up and pulling her jeans back on. When she left the bedroom she found omelets hitting the table and Lucifer seemed almost back to normal. “When did you tell the detective I would be back to work?” he asked. 

“I told her you’d be out for a few days and maybe the rest of the week.”

Lucifer nodded his head. That was fine. He wouldn’t mind a few days to think. “And what exactly did you tell her was the reason? So we can get our stories straight and all.”

“That your brother was killed and your sister is missing and you blame yourself because you had a fight,” she told him, hoping that wouldn’t bring everything back up for him again, but knowing that he needed to know anyway.

A wash of pain flashed over Lucifer’s face as he nodded. “The truth, but not the whole truth. I’ve taught you well,” he joked weakly. 

Ella chuckled. “You’re hardly the first to teach me that particular lesson,” she pointed out as she moaned at the taste of her omelet. She would never get over how good of a cook he was. By the time breakfast was over, she realized that, while he wasn’t completely okay yet and probably wouldn’t be for a long time, he was well on his way. “You want me to hang around here for today?” she asked casually, despite knowing the answer.

“I’ll be fine. You should go to work,” he told her. 

Only the fact that she could see how much more steady he was today had her agreeing. “Just give me a call if you need anything. Even just to talk. Kay?” When Lucifer nodded, she headed out. After work she stopped by to check on him, but when she found him downstairs in the club with a woman on each arm she just smiled and left. She knew that he was just putting on an act still, but he always was. If he was feeling well enough to do so, then he would be fine. She did stop by to hang out with him on Saturday night, and he seemed much better. 

She doubted that assertion when he returned to work the next week though. He had apparently decided that being Lucifer wasn’t good enough so he was going to be Dan. Only the fact that she was so busy trying to find out who really killed Chloe’s dad and the fact that Lucifer wasn’t in the building much, kept her from trying to talk to him about it. When she heard about how he had convinced the ‘human lie detector’ that he hated himself so much that he wanted himself dead, that was the last straw for her and she headed to Lux again after work. 

When he wasn’t downstairs, she headed up to the penthouse and found him sitting at the piano so she walked over and sat on the bench next to him. He stopped playing and grabbed his drink from the top of the instrument and took a sip before he said, “did you know Daniel does improv?” He had only promised not to tell the detective after all and Ella could be trusted to keep it to herself. 

She blinked in surprise, not so much at the statement but wondering what that had to do with anything that was bothering him. “No, I didn’t. Why?”

“Apparently he does a rather amusing rendition of me,” Lucifer said as he got up and headed to the balcony. 

Ella winced at the thought of what Lucifer could have seen as she got up and followed him. “I doubt it’s that amusing.” 

“Well the rest of the crowd in the theatre seemed to think so,” Lucifer said as he lit a cigarette and leaned over the balcony. 

“Only because they don’t know you,” she told him. “If they did then they would…”

“Run screaming?” Lucifer finished with a huff. 

“No,” Ella said firmly. “Anyone who knows you knows how good of a guy you are.” 

Lucifer scoffed. “I’m the devil, Ms. Lopez.” 

“So what?” 

Lucifer sighed and brought his devil face forward. “/This/ is me, Ella. This is who I am. How could anyone not run screaming?” 

Ella smiled and put a hand to his cheek. “I’m not running, am I? And that’s not all you are. Sure it’s a part of you, but we all have our dark sides. So what if yours is more visible than most?” 

Lucifer huffed and brought his normal face back as he looked out over the city. “You are the most confusing human I’ve ever met.” 

Ella chuckled and bumped her shoulder to his. “Well then we’re even because you’re the most confusing devil I’ve ever met.” Lucifer laughed and shook his head at the ridiculousness of that statement. “You /are/ a good man, Lucifer. Devil or not. You don’t need to change for anyone.” 

“I wish I could believe that,” he said hauntedly. 

“Then believe /me/,” she told him. “Trust /me/.” 

He took a deep shaky breath as he considered her words. “I’ll try,” he admitted after a moment. 

“That’s all I ask,” she told him with a smile.


	7. Chapter 7

When the next case popped up and happened to be a human stumbling across Azrael’s blade, Lucifer was more than a little nervous. “I need a favor,” Lucifer told Ella as he walked into the lab.

“Yes. Your scientific expertise on a discrete matter,” he explained.

“Ah. Paternity test?” she joked.

“What?” Lucifer asked affronted. “Do I look like someone who would be so irresponsible?”

Ella laughed at the look on his face. “Geez Lu. I was just kidding. What’s up?”

“If you do this favor for me, then I will do one for you in return,” he explained. 

“Oh please,” Ella rolled her eyes. “We are way past that tit for tat crap. Just tell me what you need.” 

“Right. Well. It’s easier if I show you,” he said, which led to her following him into a rather spooky forest with a big hole in the ground. 

“Is this where…Uriel…” 

“Yes. Someone dug it up and stole Azrael’s blade. I need you to help me find out who.” 

“Right. On it,” Ella said seriously bringing out her kit. She knew exactly what that blade did and she didn’t want it in human hands any more than he did. 

Once she managed to get the burned up paper she found rehydrated, Lucifer took one look at the logo and snapped, “Bloody hell. Mum,” and rushed out. 

Ella sighed. This was bad. She knew how much the goddess hated humans, but to intentionally give humans a map to that kind of weapon…yet she was sure that Lucifer would continue to defend her. Then again, she was his mother. Who wouldn’t?

When they stumbled across the massacre at the yoga studio, Ella enjoyed using Lucifer as a demonstration dummy and he seemed to find it amusing too. She didn’t miss the looks they got from Chloe though and it just got worse when she caught them hugging in Lucifer’s penthouse. Ella was beginning to realize that she was starting to fall for Lucifer, but had no idea what, if anything, she wanted to do about it yet. 

After the case was over, Chloe cornered Lucifer. “You know, Lucifer... I thought you and I had a real moment the other day, talking about my dad, I... I thought we were partners, but more importantly, friends.” She was more than a little hurt that he would hide something like this from him. 

“Right. Is this about me and Ella in the penthouse?” he asked. 

“Look, who you sleep with is none of my business, but... I mean, the lab tech? Really? It's a little inappropriate,” she said disapprovingly. She knew they were friends and had suspected that they were more than that after Lucifer’s meltdown a month ago, but she was almost certain now. 

“Well, much as I love to cross professional boundaries, Detective, I can assure you, everything you saw was entirely work-related.” 

“Mm-hmm? Is that... is that the truth?” she asked suspiciously. She’d never known him to lie, but it seemed pretty clear to her. 

“Always the truth. Point of pride for me, Detective,” he assured her. “But you know, if you ever did want to cross boundaries into "partnered friends who hang out naked..." 

“Okay. Stop talking,” she said firmly. Lucifer laughed as he headed out. 

Over the next couple weeks, Lucifer found himself thinking more and more about Ella. Between those little kisses they’d shared when he was a wreck after Uriel, the easy way she accepted him, had always accepted him, no matter what, the way she just seemed to brighten his life in a way he couldn’t have imagined, his thoughts were a whirl. It scared the crap out of him though. She was his friend. She was the first human to ever accept him, devil and all. The /only/ human to do so. Even his own therapist didn’t know what he was. How could he risk losing that? 

He was also more than a little confused. He knew that he had feelings for the detective as well. Was it normal to be falling for two women at the same time? If he was, how could he choose? It came to a head on the day of the trial for the killer of Chloe’s father. When she took the stand, his mother had tried to make him out to be a liar but Chloe had defended him so vociferously that he was more than a little touched by that. Then they’d almost kissed and she ran off. 

His confusion kicked up a notch as they ended up interviewing the last months worth of his sexual partners for the case. Chloe was obviously disapproving, but Ella just laughed and said ‘you do you’. There was that easy acceptance again. It didn’t stop something from drawing him to the detective though. In the end, he decided that he wasn’t worthy of either of them. When he told Chloe that though, first she told him that he was right, then she kissed him. It didn’t make any sense to him. The fact that she was almost acting like they were a couple after that just confused him more. 

When Ella said she was happy for them, he realized that he’d never had a chance with her anyway, so he might as well give it a try with the detective. That decision lasted right up until he found the picture in the bar that proved that Chloe was just a manipulation by his father. It had never been real. That explained why he couldn’t explain his attraction to her. Why, even though Ella was by far the better choice for him, he hadn’t been able to pull himself away from Chloe. This revelation was a total dose of cold water though and he quickly made his way to Chloe’s house to tell her so. 

When he got there, he found her bleeding from the nose and realized that she’d been poisoned. He immediately called Ella to meet them at her lab and he couldn’t help but grin at her pajamas, messy hair, slippers, and glasses. “No judgements guys, okay? You said come right away so I came right away. You’re lucky I remembered to put on pants…eventually. So what’s up?” 

“The detective has been poisoned. We were hoping you had an antidote somewhere in the mess from the lab,” Lucifer told her. 

“Lucifer!” Chloe hissed in irritation. 

“I’m not lying to her,” Lucifer said firmly. No matter that Chloe didn’t want anyone to know, this was Ella. Her trust meant more to him than anything. 

“Okay…wow,” Ella said urgently checking through everything for something she might have missed in her initial sweep. “And I’m guessing you didn’t want to go to the hospital since they can’t do anything without an antidote anyway.”

“Yeah. Exactly,” Chloe said, surprised that she understood so easily. 

“See? No need to deceive dear Ella,” Lucifer told her. 

Ella hid her blush at his words. If he and Chloe hadn’t gotten together, she might have said something about her feelings for him by now, but if all she could get was his unwavering trust and the occasional compliment and pet name, she would take it. “Nope. Sorry. Nothing here,” she said sympathetically. “I’ll start going through all his files with a fine-tooth comb though and see if I can try and piece something together,” she promised, pulling the computer out of the evidence bag. She didn’t know if Lucifer could handle losing someone else he loved right now. 

Ella was dragged from her completely fruitless wild goose chase when Lucifer had an idea and asked her to meet him at the penthouse. She listened in shock as he laid it all out and Amenadiel, Maze, and his mother, mostly his mother, argued against it. When his mother looked to her for some sensible advice, Ella considered her response carefully. “I think you’re all missing one important facet in this argument.” When they looked at her curiously, she said, “We need to trust Lucifer.” 

“What?” the goddess asked incredulously. 

“I don’t like the idea of him dying any more than the rest of you, but if he says he can pull it off, then I trust him. Not to mention, everyone in this room knows how stubborn he is. He’s not going to back down so we can either help him and decrease the risk or let him do it on his own and get into more trouble than he can get out of,” Ella said firmly. 

“Thank you, darling,” Lucifer drawled with a smile. 

His mother still refused to have anything to do with it and stormed out, but the rest of them were talked around. “Ella, dear. I know you’re a scientist type. How much experience do you have with defibrillators?” 

“Not a lot. I mean, I know how they work and one of my brothers is a paramedic so I’ve used them on dummies…you don’t mean you want me to…” her eyes widened as she realized why he was asking. 

“You’re the only one of us with any experience at all,” he pointed out. “Besides that, there’s no one else that I would trust with my life more.” 

Ella huffed. That was just playing dirty. How could she say no now? That didn’t stop her from using her laptop to do as much research as she could on the way to the hospital, even as she tried to talk to Lucifer about this crazy plan. “Before we do this…are you really sure about this? I mean…I know how much you care about Chloe and all, but…”

“Oh no, you misunderstand,” he told her. “Chloe and I are over. I found out she was just another grand manipulation by my father. None of it was real.” 

“Then why…” 

“Because she’s still my partner and my friend and she doesn’t deserve to die like this. Not while there’s any chance I can possibly stop it,” Lucifer told her. 

Ella knew now that there was zero chance of talking him out of it so all she could do was go along with it. Once he was on the table, hooked up to the machine, she decided it was now or never and if it gave him a little extra incentive to get back, then that was all the better. She leaned down and kissed him with everything she had. “I love you, Lucifer Morningstar, and you are worth /everything/ to me, so if you don’t come back I /will/ come after you myself. Got it?” 

He just looked at her in shock and nodded slowly, so she put the paddles to his chest and set them off. Maze had offered to do that part, but Ella needed to do it herself. Watching him die was bad enough, but trying to bring him back after someone else killed him would have been worse. It was only second after he was out that his mother came in, having changed her mind and wanting to help. When Ella couldn’t bring him back, she took the paddles herself and went after him, so Ella kept trying and it finally worked. Lucifer scrambled out of the room even as Ella was trying to bring back his mother, but she couldn’t really blame him. Chloe was already on borrowed time.


	8. Chapter 8

Once he got the antidote handed over, Ella met him in the waiting room and went to sit next to him. “You okay?” she asked, pretending that kiss and deathbed confession hadn’t happened. If he wanted to talk about it he would. 

“I will be,” he said weakly, still not quite up to snuff. Once he caught his breath he grabbed Ella’s hand and pulled her along until they found an empty room to slip into. “Did you mean what you said before? A-about…me?” 

“Every word,” she said sincerely and was caught off guard when he pulled her in for a kiss and she sank happily into it. 

“I-I do love you, Ella, but I’m going to have to get out of here for a while. And when I get back, I’m probably going to have to hurt you, and I’m sorry, but…” 

“Lucifer,” she called, trying to stop him from babbling. She’d gone from as happy as possible to sad to confused all in the space of a few seconds. “Why don’t you just tell me what’s going on first?” 

“Okay, so when my mother came down to get me, I was trapped in a room of my guilt,” he explained knowing that she knew how hell worked. “She ended up getting trapped in the same guilt and admitted to some things. I don’t really want to go into details, but she’s been manipulating me all along. What I don’t know is how bad it is and what her future plans are, and that’s what I need to find out.”

“And going on a trip is going to help you?” she asked curiously. 

“I need to find a conman. Someone who can get one over on her. I won’t know any more until then, but chances are there will be some elaborate con going on when I get back, but I don’t want to hurt you…”

She cut him off with a kiss. “I get it, Lu. I’ll be fine. You do what you need to do,” she assured him. “I know how you feel and you know how I feel. We can figure out the rest when we have a chance.” 

Lucifer smiled and pulled her into a hug. The first one he’d ever initiated. “How did I ever get so lucky as to find you?” 

She grinned and held him tightly. “I was just asking myself the same thing.” She stepped back and looked up at him. “I love you,” she said happily, wanting to say it when it wasn’t out of desperation. 

“And I love you, my dear Ella,” he whispered, kissing her softly. “But we should get back. I’m sorry, but this will need to remain between us for the time being.” 

“That’s fine,” she told him. “I don’t mind.” Part of her wanted to yell it from the rooftops, but she knew that it would mess up his plans and if his mother’s manipulation was bad enough, possibly even risk his life and she would never do that. 

“Thank you,” he said relieved with one more quick kiss before they headed out of the room, pretending for all the world like it never happened. He did stick around long enough to see that Chloe was recovering before he hit the road though. 

When Lucifer came back two weeks later with a bimbo wife on his arm, Ella wasn’t particularly surprised. She knew that this was a possibility and probably the best way of getting information from his mother. When Lucifer caught her eye she just smiled and nodded, but was glad that she had a little while to compose herself before he brought her up to the lab. “Oh my god, hi!” Ella said hyper, pulling the blonde into a hug. “I’m Ella.” That set the tone from the off and she could see the relieved look on Lucifer’s face at her reaction. 

A few days later, while Candy was occupying the goddess, a visitor appeared in Lucifer’s penthouse. “Rae-Rae!?” Lucifer said in shock as he rushed towards her, almost catching her as she stumbled and helping her to the couch. “What…how…we thought you were dead?” He pulled out his phone to text Ella even as he waited for her answer. 

“It was a close thing, but he used my own sword to do the job. I’m the only being in the universe it can’t kill since it’s bound to me. Doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt like the dickens and leave me laid up for…how long has it been?” 

“Almost three months,” Lucifer told her. “Are you okay?” 

“I will be in another month or two,” she told him and then noticed his hand. “Is that a wedding ring?!” she asked gleefully. Uriel’s plan must have worked better than he anticipated. 

“Yeah, actually. My wife Candy is out with Mum at the moment so…”

“Wait…Candy?” she asked in shock. So much for Uriel’s plan working. This was a disaster. How could things have gone so wrong? 

“Yes. I met her in Vegas. I would offer to let you stay and meet her, but she’ll probably be with Mum when they get back. I texted Ella though. She should be here soon and you can stay with her while you heal up and I’ll bring Candy by soon to meet you, yeah?” Lucifer told her. He wanted to tell her the truth, but he never could rule out his mother having a way to listen in. he would be able to tell her at Ella’s though. Or Ella could tell her. Either way. 

“Wh-what’s she like?” Azrael asked, too shocked to consider asking anything else. Mostly she just wanted him talking so that she could try and think. She had to find some way to salvage this. What the hell had happened? 

Lucifer gushed about his new wife for a little while before Ella got there. “Rae-Rae?” she asked with tears in her eyes before almost tackling the angel in a hug. When Azrael groaned in pain, despite hugging her back, Ella let go. “Oh crap. I’m sorry. Are you okay? Lu said you were hurt?” 

“Yeah. It’s a long story, and I’d really rather be out of here before Mother gets back…” 

“Right. Yeah,” Ella said, helping her to her feet. “I gotcha.” 

Before they left, Lucifer told Ella, “I was telling her about Candy, but you can take over and tell her the ‘whole’ story,” he said with a look that he knew she understood when she smirked and nodded. If anyone could be trusted not to go running to their mother with the information it was Azrael. 

Ella told her everything on the ride back to her place and Azrael relaxed a lot. It made sense in an idiot Lucifer sort of way. She could see how happy Ella was at the idea that it was her that Lucifer loved though and if Lucifer really had told Ella that, then he must have meant it completely. Not only did he not lie, but he wouldn’t have said something that big unless it was very serious. At least their plans were still on track. She just hoped they still had enough time and that the others could hold on a little longer. 

They were all glad when Candy was gone, not that they hadn’t liked her of course, but because they could stop pretending. No sooner than Candy was in the car, Lucifer was on his way to Ella’s apartment and swept her up in a kiss as Azrael giggled at them. “I’m so glad you two found each other. My two favorite people are together,” she said happily. 

“Yes, we did,” Lucifer said, still holding Ella to him. “And I found out more of what Mum has planned.” He looked at Azrael. “Is it true that your blade is the flaming sword?” he asked her. 

“It’s a piece of it, yes. There are two other pieces to put it back together, but I don’t know where they are,” she told him. “She wants to reassemble it?”

“Yes. She wants to use it to cut through the gates of heaven and take it back,” he told her. “I plan to do just that, but shove her ass in and let her and dad take care of each other,” he said bitterly. 

“No!” Azrael said almost in a panic before catching herself and scrambling for a reason for her reaction. “You can’t do that, Lu. Do you know how many of us will die in that siege?” 

“Is there another choice?” Lucifer asked. “You know how Mum is.”

“Yeah. I do. But what about giving her a universe all of her own?” Azrael suggested. 

“What do you mean?” Lucifer asked confused. 

“The flaming sword can cut through anything,” she told him. “Including time and space. You can use it to create a tear into a whole new universe. An empty universe. She can make it however she wants.” 

“That’s…not a bad idea,” Lucifer said thoughtfully. He was sure he would have thought of it on his own eventually, of course. “I can’t tell her that’s the plan. At least not until it’s actually happening. She’s got her mind set on going home, but it’s not like she can do either without me.”

“Why not?” Ella asked curiously. 

“Only the lightbringer can light the flaming sword,” Azrael told her.


	9. Chapter 9

Lucifer got all the information that Azrael had about the other two pieces of the sword and realized that one of them had been right under their noses the whole time. He was suddenly very glad that he had helped Amenadiel get his necklace back all those years ago and for more reasons that the fact that it had allowed him to stay on earth. That just left one piece to find. When Azrael told them what effect it would have on a human who might have found it, it just took one quick google search for Ella to track down its most likely location. It took a bit of planning, but Lucifer managed to get in and liberate the belt buckle of ‘God Johnson’ from the psychiatric institution. He’d wanted to go in undercover as the devil, but Ella had a minor freakout over the idea. He felt bad about even suggesting it when he remembered that ending up in a place like that was her greatest fear. 

Once he had the buckle, he told Azrael and Ella to lay low while he finished this, and they both agreed. Azrael because she still wanted to stay off the radar of her mother and Amenadiel, and Ella because she knew that if it came to a fight she would just be a liability. She pulled Lucifer into a kiss before he left though and told him, “Please be careful and come back to me.” 

“Wild horses couldn’t keep me away, darling,” he promised her. 

He headed home and called his mother and Amenadiel to come over. It took some doing to get Amenadiel to part with his necklace and once the sword was lit, he said, “Here goes nothing,” and slashed the sword, cutting a hole in space and time just like Azrael said. “There you go, Mum. There’s your way forward.” 

“What is that?” she asked. 

“That’s not The Silver City, Luci,” Amenadiel said at the same time. 

“No. It’s not. It’s a whole new universe for you Mum. One without Dad that you can create however you want.”

“This wasn’t the plan,” Amenadiel said in irritation. 

“No. It wasn’t. But I decided that I would rather not have to kill my siblings in a battle that we would probably lose anyway,” Lucifer snapped. “I mean, come on? The three of us against all of heaven? Even if we did win, how many lives would it cost? Would that be worth it for you Mum? Being forced to kill your own children?” 

She shook her head. “No. The last thing I want is to hurt my children,” she said sadly. “But this…” 

“Then we can find another way to get home,” Amenadiel argued. “You don’t have to do this, Mom.” 

The goddess knew better though. None of her boys knew it, but this vessel wasn’t going to hold her much longer. She already had to keep a bandage over her wrist as she was starting to spill out. “Yes, I do,” she told him sadly, reaching out to him, but Amenadiel just stepped away, glared at Lucifer and stormed out. He wanted to go home and he wanted Mom to go with them. He was going to have no part of this…idiocy. 

The goddess sighed and turned towards Lucifer who let her pull him into a hug. “I’m going to miss you my angel,” she said sadly. 

“Me too, Mum,” he told her. “But this is the only way.” 

“I know,” she said sadly before letting herself spill into the rift and her body fell to the floor. 

Lucifer was just about to toss the buckle into the rift after her, knowing that Azrael would want her blade back and Amenadiel might want his necklace back too. Before he could throw it though, Azrael flew in and snatched it out of the air. “No!” she yelled. 

“Rae-Rae?” Lucifer asked in surprise. “What…”

“Sorry, Lu. But we’re gonna need that sword again soon,” she told him. 

“Why?” he asked incredulously. 

“I’ll explain it all, but we need to get Ella here. She needs to hear this too.” 

“Fine, but I expect a full explanation then Azrael,” Lucifer said dangerously. She nodded and called Ella to come over. 

Once Ella arrived, Lucifer pulled her over to the couch to sit with him and then glared at Azrael, “Explain,” he ordered. He was feeling manipulated again and he didn’t like it at all. 

“Okay. It’s just hard to know where to start,” she said, trying to collect her thoughts, not having had much luck while Lucifer was pacing and throwing her dirty looks waiting for Ella. 

“Try the beginning, Rae-Rae,” Ella suggested. 

“Yeah. Okay. I guess that’s as good a place as any,” she said. “Well to start with, what you think you know about your fall is wrong,” she told Lucifer. 

“Is that so?” he scoffed. “And you’re just now telling me this?” 

“There is a reason that you’ll understand when I’m done,” she assured him. “But you have to promise to hear me out completely, okay?” When he gave a tense nod, she began. “Let’s start with the rebellion. What you don’t know is that Dad was about to start negotiations with you. He felt that if so many agreed with you, then he at least owed you enough to hear you out and try to find a solution that everyone could be happy with.”

“And instead he threw me into hell?” Lucifer asked skeptically. 

“No. When Mother found out what he was planning, she disagreed. She didn’t want to give up any of the control she had over us. When she couldn’t talk him around, she decided that getting rid of you was the best way to do it. She was the one who threw you into hell. He didn’t even find out for a few weeks. He and everyone else thought you were just off working on your next big plan, like you always did. When he found out what she did, he was beyond pissed.” 

“And yet, in all this time, he never got me out,” Lucifer pointed out as Ella rubbed his back soothingly. 

“Because he couldn’t. I’m getting there,” Azrael said. “They started arguing over it and when he learned that she wanted to destroy everything, all of us included, and start back over, he was appalled. She said that the fact that we even considered a rebellion in the first place was proof that we were broken just like you broke humanity and she wanted to try and do better with the next go around. That’s when the fight started. It went on for weeks and by the time it was over, Dad was all but dead, but Mother was weakened enough that a group of us were able to overpower her and chuck her into hell.”

“You can’t be trying to tell me that Dad is dead. If he were then all of existence would be gone,” Lucifer said skeptically, pulling a gasp from Ella who was just trying to take it all in. 

“No. He’s not dead. Not quite. Raphael and Barrachiel have been tethering him to life and to the throne ever since. He’s close enough to dead that I can communicate with him, but only in short spurts and not very often. That’s why I never came to you for so long after you were sent down there. It was very touch and go for a long time and all of us in the know were beyond busy.” 

“So not everyone knows then? Amenadiel?” 

“No, not everyone knows. Only about a dozen of us, and Amenadiel isn’t one of them. The few orders that have actually been given out since then were relayed by me to Gabriel to Amenadiel. He didn’t think anything of the orders coming from Dad’s messenger.”

“But why not tell everyone?” 

“I guess there’s no reason not to now,” she told him. “But before, while Mother was still in this world it was too risky. What if they didn’t believe us about her wanting to wipe us all out and tried to get her to take over the throne before Dad died?” 

Lucifer sighed. “I suppose that makes sense. And it also explains why you didn’t tell me when I was so close to Mum. But what does that have to do with me or the sword?” 

“Here’s where we start the part that you’re really not going to like,” Azrael said with a wince. 

“Oh yes, because the rest has been so pleasant so far,” Lucifer drawled sarcastically. 

“We’re losing our hold on Dad. We can’t keep him alive much longer. There is a way to save him, but it requires you, back at full power, and until he’s conscious to lift the ban that Mother put on you, you need that sword to get in.” 

“You expect me to lift a finger to save him? After…” Lucifer trailed off, realizing that so much of what he’d hated his father for wasn’t actually true. But there was still, “Chloe?” 

Azrael sighed. “She was a last ditch attempt by Dad. See, when Mother threw you into hell, your power got twisted. I’m sure you noticed that you only have access to one side of it.”

“I just assumed it was because there was no love and compassion in hell,” Lucifer told her. 

“That’s part of it. That weakened it more, but for you to be back at full power, you had to find love. Real love,” she said looking at Ella. 

“Hold on,” Lucifer said jumping to his feet in both agony and anger. “You’re saying that she was just a manipulation too?”


	10. Chapter 10

“No, Lu. She’s not. Not the way you’re thinking,” Azrael rushed to say, crushed by both his reaction and the hurt look on Ella’s face. She knew that this was going to be the hard part from the start. “You promised to hear me out.” 

Lucifer set his jaw, and sat back down, this time a little further away from Ella which broke her heart nearly as much as knowing that her best friend might have manipulated her entire relationship. “Fine. Talk.” 

“Nothing that you two feel for each other is fabricated. By anyone. The only thing we manipulated was getting the two of you to meet sooner than you would have. By the time you would have met it would have been too late. It would all be gone. Heaven, Hell, Earth, every world, every sun, every /molecule/ of existence. We brought you two together about ten years before you originally would have met. Everything else was you two.”

“How does the detective fit into this?” Lucifer asked, trying to get a minute to wrap his head around that piece of information. 

“Ella hadn’t been born yet, so Dad decided to make a desperate attempt to create you a manufactured soulmate. It was a long shot. We all knew that soulmates don’t work that way, but at the time it was the only shot we had. Then about five years later, Ella was born.”

“So, our friendship, all the stories you told about Lucifer and everyone else, all of it was so that you could make me love him when I met him?” Ella asked hurt. 

“No,” Azrael shook her head. “I wasn’t intending to strike up a friendship with you at all. But you were about to die, and we couldn’t let that happen. Not when we actually had a chance at saving it all. I don’t usually talk to the souls I collect. I just take them and go, but with you I was trying to buy time for Uriel to pull the right threads for the paramedics to bring you back. Then I just…got attached. You were just so bright and happy and positive and…I just couldn’t let you go.”

“And all the stories you told her about me?” Lucifer asked suspiciously. 

“Were just me talking to my friend. I didn’t even think about it like that until she just mentioned it. I told her about most of my brothers and sisters. At least the ones I was or had been close to.”

Lucifer looked at Ella for confirmation and she nodded. “Uriel was in on it? Then why would he…” 

Azrael sighed. “Time was getting shorter than we thought. He realized that there would need to be something big to bring you two closer together faster. He knew that killing him would hurt you, Lu, but he also knew that Ella would help you. He sacrificed his life to save the entire universe.” 

That was the last straw for Lucifer who got up and stormed out to the balcony. Ella looked at Azrael in disappointment, but said, “he promised to finish hearing you out so I know he will, but give him a little while to process.” When Azrael nodded, she got up too and followed him. She needed to know where they stood now. 

“Can we talk?” she asked weakly as she leaned against the railing of the balcony next to him and a few feet away. 

“We probably should,” Lucifer admitted, taking a long drag off his cigarette. 

She knew that she was going to have to take the first step here, so she took a deep breath to steel herself for it as she said, “No matter how it happened, I still love you.” 

Lucifer sighed and didn’t say anything for a long time as he thought. He considered both the similarities and differences between the situations with her and Chloe. Chloe had always felt a little bit wrong. She never accepted him as he was. She was always trying to control him and change him. He still couldn’t help but be drawn to her though and he knew now that was because of his father’s interference in creating a false soulmate. Ella though…she was supposedly his real soulmate. His true perfect match and he could see that. She loved him and accepted him just as he was. She never tried to change him or control him. She just was. She made him happy. Happier than he’d ever been. So much so that thinking it had all been a lie had nearly torn him apart. He’d been almost relieved when he learned about Chloe. Chloe had told him that he wasn’t worth it before she kissed him the first time. Ella had told him that he was worth everything. She brightened up his life in a way he never thought was possible and he loved her so much it hurt. In the end, he supposed that was all that mattered. Once he came to that conclusion, he reached out and pulled Ella to his side. “I love you too, Ella. No matter what. It doesn’t matter how we got here. /This/ is real.” 

She smiled and let out a relieved breath as she cuddled to his side. “Yes. It is.” They stood there in silence for a long moment before she asked, “Are you okay?” 

“I don’t have the slightest clue right now, darling,” he admitted wearily. 

“Me either,” she said sympathetically. She didn’t even have nearly as many blows as he did and she was still feeling spun out. “Can I make a suggestion?” 

“Always, dearest,” he replied. 

“I say we go back in, hear the rest of the story, and then take some time to ourselves to come to terms with it.”

“Together or apart?” he asked worriedly. 

“Either or. Preferably together,” she told him. 

“Together it is then,” he said with a half smile as he leaned down to kiss her gently before heading back inside. 

Azrael breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that they were still together and when they sat back down, Lucifer motioned her to continue. “To backtrack a little bit, Mother getting out was a complication and that was the biggest thing that set us back and forced Uriel into such a desperate choice. He left me his notes after he stabbed me, which I’m still bitter about by the way, but he knew that I wouldn’t have let him go through with it if I’d known. He had been hoping that you would bring Mother and we could get back on track that way, but he knew that it was only a small chance. We had to get her under control before any of this got out, but we quickly realized that sending her back to hell wasn’t an option.”

“Why not?” Ella asked. 

“Because now that she knew she could get out, with the throne technically vacant, he could have taken it over and started the apocalypse here on Earth and possibly found a way to get into heaven as well and destroy everything like she wanted to. Dad is basically a sitting duck right now,” she explained. 

“That’s why Amenadiel kept sending me back to hell,” Lucifer figured out. 

“No. Not exactly. He didn’t know any of that. He hadn’t even considered the possibility of Mother taking the vacant throne. He did that of his volition. That is why we didn’t fight him on it at all until this time though. Once Ella was in the world, you needed to be up here to meet him. When I came to pick up the soul of the fighter, I manipulated things a bit to get his necklace stolen. I was hoping you could use his desperation to bargain your way into a deal. If you didn’t then we had a few backup plans.”

“So it’s thanks to you I’ve gotten to enjoy the last seven years hell free?” Lucifer asked and when he got a nod he said, “Thank you for that much then.”

“You’re welcome,” Azrael said with a smile. This was going better than she had anticipated. “Continuing on, I was the one who came up with the idea to use the sword to get Mother her own universe. That’s why I let you keep it after I came back. I knew you would figure it out, and assumed you would come to me for more information so I could give you the idea. That’s it. That’s the end of the story.”

“Okay, I just have one more question,” Lucifer said. “How am I supposed to be able to help heal Dad?” 

“Not just you. Both of you,” Azrael said. 

“M-me?” Ella asked in shock and awe. 

“Yes. The lightbringer AND his light are the final pieces of the puzzle we need.” 

“But she can’t get into heaven without being dead,” Lucifer said tightening his hold on her at the thought. 

“Normally, you’d be right. That sword negates that though. She can just walk through the gates with us regardless of her life status,” she told him. 

“You still haven’t said what we need to do,” Lucifer pointed out. 

“Both of you, myself, Raphael, and Gabriel will need to flood him with our power. Life, death, light, and mercy. Your power still hasn’t completely repaired which is why Ella is needed to channel it.” 

Lucifer thought for a moment before nodding. “We have a lot to process and I’m not making any promises right now. How long do we have to think about this?”

“Raphael and Barrachiel assure me they can hold out a few more weeks if needed. Sooner would be better than later though, obviously.” 

Ella had one more question too though. “You said only a few of you even know about this. How are you going to get them to not attack us when we cut through the gates?” 

Lucifer looked at her in surprise. He hadn’t even considered that aspect. 

“For one thing, I’ll be with you, as will Gabriel who will meet us there. We’re also going to spread the word that you’re coming home with father’s blessing, so there won’t be as much animosity anyway.” 

“Okay,” Lucifer nodded. “We’ll let you know once we’ve decided what we’re doing and when.” Azrael nodded and flew away, going to heaven to make the final arrangements. If Lucifer declined to help they would all cease to exist anyway, so there was no point in not doing so.


	11. Chapter 11

Ella and Lucifer cuddled on the couch for a little while before getting into discussions. “I guess the first thing we need to consider is if we even have a choice,” she said. 

“I know. I was thinking the same thing. If we don’t do it then all of existence, us included, ends. That doesn’t mean we have to go rushing off without a plan though.” 

“Yeah. You’re right about that. We need to consider the potential consequences first. Let’s say your Dad is healed…what is he going to do to you?” she asked. 

Lucifer sighed. “Yesterday I would have said that he would throw me back into hell if he didn’t kill me first, but now…I don’t know. If he really did want to negotiate back then…”

“Okay, so nothing bad to worry about there,” she said. “At least not likely. What other potential consequences can you think of?” she asked, knowing that he would have a better idea than she would. 

“Him splitting us up,” Lucifer said. “Humans and divinity aren’t supposed to mix.” 

Ella sighed and cuddled him tighter at the very thought of it. “Okay, but maybe he would be so grateful to us for saving his life to make an exception?” 

“Maybe,” Lucifer told her. “If nothing else though I’m sure I could talk him into taking away my divinity so that I could stay with you here. I would just feel so much better if we could talk to him and make a deal before walking into this.” 

“I know. Do you think Rae-Rae could do it? She said she was able to communicate with him sometimes.” 

“I doubt it, but we can ask,” Lucifer told her. “If he’s really that weak now that the two best healers in heaven are having trouble holding on, it’s probably a long shot.” 

“True, but it can’t hurt to ask. Anything else?” 

“Making me leave Earth, though that somewhat falls into the same category as splitting us up,” Lucifer said. “And that’s about all I can think of.”

“Okay, so is there anything, other than trying to talk to him first, that we can do to negate or lessen the risks of any of those consequences?” 

“Not in advance, no. There are ways once it’s done that I could get back here, and back to you though, and you have to know that I would take them. I’m not leaving you if I can help it,” he told her. 

Ella smiled brightly and kissed him. “I know, love. And you know I’ll never leave you if I can help it.” After a few minutes of silence as they thought, Ella did have one thing to say. “You know…If our love is supposed to be the key here, maybe we should make love at least once before it all goes down,” she smirked at him with a glint of mischief in her eyes. 

Lucifer laughed and picked her up bridal style. “I do like the way you think, darling.” 

The next morning, they had decided that they were going to do it, of course, but they wanted to make some arrangements here just in case. The first thing Lucifer did was call Maze. He explained everything to her and apologized that he wouldn’t be able to take her home, but did offer her the club and everything else he owned if they didn’t come back. If Ella came back and he didn’t she would get everything but the club and his money would be split between them. Maze wasn’t happy, but the destruction of the entire universe made it a rather moot point. She even shed a tear when they said their possibly forever goodbyes. 

They both put in the papers for a leave of absence from the station for a month just in case and if they weren’t back by then they wouldn’t be. They didn’t explain anything to anyone else beyond the fact that they were together so it was just assumed that they were taking a vacation or going to elope and take a honeymoon. No one else would understand. Lucifer considered trying to talk to Amenadiel first, but decided against it after the way they’d left things. He’d sided with their mother and helped to manipulate him for most of a year. He didn’t owe his brother anything. He left a long letter explaining everything that Azrael told him with Maze to hand over if he came back around. 

Once the leave of absence came through a week later, they called to Azrael who arrived in minutes. “We’re ready,” Ella told her as Lucifer grabbed the sword and lit it up again. She stood beside them and nodded so Lucifer raised the sword, this time concentrating on the gates of heaven and slashed it through the air. When the rift formed, Ella gasped at the sight of heaven. Azrael stepped in first and Lucifer tucked Ella’s hand into the crook of his arm as he escorted her through and into heaven. 

True to Azrael’s word, Gabriel met them at the gates and the four of them walked through the streets to the castle. Lucifer was surprised how few looks of loathing he got though there were still a few. Ella just kept looking around in awe. She could see why they called it the Silver City. Once they entered the castle, Azrael felt free to speak. The only residents were the group that was keeping him alive anyway. “Barrachiel has been taking over the bulk of the healing since we spoke so that Raphael could save as much of his power as possible for the ceremony.” 

“That makes sense,” Lucifer said with a nod, feeling more than a little weird being back here after so long. Only Ella’s presence at his side kept him steady. 

They stepped into a room with what looked eerily like a funeral pyre in the center and the ten residents of the room who had gathered for this all nodded gratefully to Lucifer. There would be time to talk after it was done though. The five of them that would be participating took their places around the body, Lucifer and Ella on his left side, his hand over hers above his father’s heart, Gabriel on his right side with a hand on the other side of his chest. Raphael was at their father’s head, one hand on either side of it, and Azrael had a hand wrapped around each of his ankles. Raphael gave the signal to begin and they all started pouring power into the body on the dais.

Ella resisted the urge to gasp as she felt Lucifer’s light flowing through her. It was the most incredible thing she’d ever felt in her life and only his arm around her waist was keeping her on her feet. It was like pure euphoria flooding her body, so much so that she let out an audible whine when it ended, and everyone else in the room couldn’t help but chuckle. 

It was less than a minute later when a deep shaky breath came from God and he slowly opened his eyes. As he sat up, everyone in the room took a knee, even Lucifer, though it galled him a bit to do so. “Rise my children,” God said as he looked around, surprised that he was alive and awake at all. It didn’t take long for his eyes to set on Lucifer. “Lucifer, my son,” he reached out a hand to Lucifer who took it hesitantly only to be pulled into a hug. “I was so sorry to learn of your fate due to your mother’s treachery. Are you well?” Lucifer swallowed around the lump in his throat and nodded, unable to find words to answer that. “And a living human? Here?” he turned his eyes to Ella in curiosity and she curtsied awkwardly. 

Lucifer snickered at her and finally found words. “This is Ella, my soulmate and my light. She was needed to help me funnel my still recovering power, or so I was told,” he introduced her, trying not to show his nerves. 

God took her hand and pulled her into a gentle hug as well. “Then I thank you my child. Both for the happiness of my son and for your assistance here today.” 

“You’re very welcome,” Ella breathed out as her brain kept trying to shut down. God himself was hugging her and thanking her. 

He let her go and stepped back looking around the room. “Thank you to all of you for your care over the years. Since I only got the bare minimum of information in that state, let us retire to the gathering room so that you can all catch me up.” Lucifer and Ella looked hesitant about following, but when he motioned them along, they did so. 

It took a few hours to give him the bare overview of the important points that he’d missed and he sat back and steepled his fingers thinking for a moment. Finally, he turned to Lucifer and Ella. “While I appreciate both of your assistance more than you know, there is one slight problem. Humanity and divinity cannot mix.” Ella immediately felt tears welling in her eyes as Lucifer’s arm tightened around her. God wasn’t done yet. “Therefore you both have a choice to make. I can either make Lucifer human to live a human lifetime on Earth or I can give Ella divinity to live an eternity here.” 

They both looked at each other before looking back at him and Lucifer asked, “May we have a few minutes to discuss it?” 

God nodded so Lucifer got up and pulled Ella into a far corner where they could talk without being overheard. “What do you think?” Ella asked. 

Lucifer smiled at her. “As much as I don’t like the idea of returning to heaven generally speaking, since my father is willing to at least listen to my concerns now, I could live with it. I enjoy living on Earth a great deal, but the tradeoff is only getting a human lifetime to enjoy it and possibly being separated from you after death.”

“So you’re saying you’re good with whatever choice I make?” she asked with a chuckle. It was so like him to put this decision all on her.

“Yes, darling. Anywhere I’m with you will be home to me,” he told her. 

“Then forever with you sounds pretty good to me,” she grinned and kissed him. 

“It sounds good to me too,” Lucifer said before leading her back to the table. “She would like to accept divinity.” 

God nodded and motioned her forward before putting a hand on her head and it glowed brightly for a minute before fading. “Now I’d like to fix your wings if I may, Lucifer?” he asked. Lucifer nodded and took his turn with the bright light. “Since that’s settled, can I see the flaming sword?” Lucifer nodded and handed it over and God returned it to the three pieces. He handed Azrael her blade back, put the buckle on his belt and handed the necklace to Ella, wanting to honor his newest daughter. “This way, should it ever be needed again, it will take the four of us to agree to put it back together.”


	12. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By request here is a little snapshot of reactions and what happened to everyone else. Enjoy.

It was two months before Amenadiel ended up back at Lux. He was surprised to find Maze running the place and Lucifer nowhere to be found. Maze handed him a letter not long after he arrived though and he sat down at a nearby booth to read it, paling even more with every word. Once he finished he got up and went up to the penthouse to do this in privacy and prayed for his father, asking for guidance and help. After so long with no contact whatsoever, though he knew why now, he was almost surprised when the man appeared, and dismayed by his words. “I am very disappointed in you Amenadiel.”

“I’m so sorry father,” he bowed his head as he continued kneeling. 

“I’m not sure that you are given that you don’t even know why,” God told him, moving to sit in the armchair that Lucifer had left behind. He had to give his son credit for taste. This was a rather lavish living space. 

“For raising a human from hell and causing the death of other humans?” Amenadiel guessed. 

God shook his head ruefully. “No, Amenadiel, though that was bad enough. The reason you did it though…to kill your brother…and all of the other things you’d done to your brother. That’s why I’m disappointed.”

“But I thought you wanted him in hell…”

“I didn’t!” God almost roared. “And even if I did, you should not have acted without orders. Had you even attempted to ask me what to do in that situation, you may have learned the truth sooner. You took it upon yourself to continue your brother’s torment. If you truly thought that I was still aware and giving the orders you should have waited for them. Or did you think that I wouldn’t have been able to take care of the situation myself?”

Amenadiel shuddered at his father’s anger. He could understand his point now. He should have waited for orders. That didn’t change the fact though that, “Someone had to be on the throne of hell.”

“Yes and any one of your brothers and sisters could have done it. There were those that would have been willing to take on a temporary assignment there had you even attempted to find another solution,” God told him. “Instead you saw fit to extend your brother’s torment indefinitely.”

“Wh-what is to be done with me, father?” Amenadiel asked worriedly. 

“You will walk in your brother’s shoes. It has been more than five hundred Earth years since your brother first clawed his way from the depths before you threw him back in, but we will round it down to five hundred. You will take the throne of hell for that time. No more patrolling the gates, you will actually set foot in there. You will sit on the throne. You will attempt to control the depravities of the demons. You will oversee the torture of the human souls. You will endure the harsh conditions. Everything that you subjected Lucifer to, you will experience. At the end of that time, if you have earned your wings back you may return home and someone else will take your place. If not, you will remain until you have earned your redemption. Understood?” 

“Yes father,” he said with a wince. There was a reason that he never did more than patrol the gates. Hell was called that for a reason. 

“What will you do with me?” Maze asked from in front of the elevator. She had felt the surge of power up here and come to investigate.

God had noticed when she arrived, but since he wished to speak to her as well, he had allowed her to stay. He waved his hand and Amenadiel disappeared before he addressed her though. “You Mazikeen, are a very special case. A true miracle. A demon that has begun to grow a soul.”

Maze’s eyes widened. “I-I have?” 

“Yes. You have. You have developed emotions. Compassion. Love. Empathy. It is still forming, but it is very much there. As such, you will have a choice. I can return you to hell, with or without that forming soul, though it will wither and die from lack of nourishment there, or you may remain here on earth to allow it to continue. If you choose that option though, the tradeoff will be mortality.”

“So then I can die and go back to hell anyway on the other side of the torture?” Maze asked distastefully. 

“You will choose your own fate, Mazikeen. Only actions you take with a fully formed soul will count against you. You will have as much chance as anyone to enter heaven.” 

“And yet if I feel guilty for accidentally running over a puppy or something…”

God cut her off. “Yes, Lucifer has made me aware of such problems with the current system. I am already in the process of correcting them. Some type of screening process will be put into place. Naturally it is too soon to say what type or when it will go into effect, but rescuing any souls who are undeserving of their torment will be the first priority.”

“And if I die before my soul is finished?” she asked. 

“Your mortality won’t begin until your soul is fully formed. You will still be susceptible to the same things that all demons and celestials are. I cannot change that. But you will not be able to be killed by human means until then,” he explained, completely understanding why she wanted all available information before making a decision. 

“Do I have to decide now?” 

“No. I can give you one Earth week. If I have not heard from you in that time, I will assume that you intend to remain on Earth and your decision will be final.”

“Can you tell me…how are Lucifer and Ella? A lot of their friends down here are worried about them.” Including her roommate and the child who never shut up about it. 

“They are well. They are living in the Silver City now and Ella has been granted divinity. Lucifer and I are working together to solve old problems and create a new system that everyone can be happy with.”

“I can’t exactly tell their friends that,” she said wryly. 

“You may tell them what you wish then. Know that neither of them will be returning to Earth anytime in a human lifetime if they ever will,” God told her. That was one of the things that was on the agenda to discuss. Contact with humanity. There were far too many other issues taking precedence though. 

“So I’ll tell them they died then. It’ll be easiest that way,” Maze said with a nod, hoping for approval before telling such a big lie.

“That would be the most prudent solution yes, but perhaps word it that they have moved on to heaven instead?” he suggested and she didn’t dare disagree. “Remember Mazikeen. One week,” he said as he disappeared and Maze let out a heavy breath. Dealing with God was always stressful. Especially for demons. 

Lucifer and Ella had a list of people they wanted to be notified of when they arrived. On that list was Chloe, Dan, Trixie, Linda, Maze once they learned it was a possibility, and Ella’s family. Ella’s grandmother was the first to arrive and was greeted by them. She was overjoyed to learn that Ella was an angel now, not quite as happy to learn that she was married to Lucifer, but calmed at the fact that he was apparently redeemed and back in heaven with God’s approval.

The next to arrive was Linda. She took one look at Lucifer and Ella waiting for her with wings splayed wide and her eyes got the size of saucers. “You weren’t talking in metaphors were you?” 

Lucifer laughed. “No doctor. I wasn’t.” They spent a little while catching up as they personally escorted her to her section of heaven and promised to visit every once in a while. 

Next was Chloe who Lucifer greeted with a cheeky, “See? I told you I was the devil.” 

That was a bad idea though because Chloe burst into tears. “I’m in hell?” she asked plaintively. 

Ella just glared at Lucifer as she hugged Chloe soothingly. “No Chloe. You’re in heaven. Lucifer is back here now, but still an idiot sometimes.” Chloe calmed and couldn’t help but chuckle at Ella’s words. They too did some catching up on the way with a promise to visit. 

The rest of the arrivals went much the same way, but Lucifer managed to refrain from upsetting anyone else and before long every human they knew was safely tucked away in heaven. 

It was another fifty years before the arrival of someone who turned all of heaven on their ear and most of the population turned up to greet the only ‘former’ demon who had ever or would ever set foot in the sacred city. Maze blinked in shock at Lucifer and Ella at the front of the welcoming committee and couldn’t help but smile when Lucifer hugged her as she hugged him back tightly. She tried not to show how overwhelmed she was at making it into heaven, not to mention the mostly warm welcome, but Lucifer had known her long enough to see it anyway. 

Amenadiel returned after his five hundred years and broke down in tears of apologies to Lucifer who accepted the apologies, but forgiveness was a long time coming. They did manage to repair their relationship eventually though and got back to being the brothers they always should have been. 

Once Amenadiel was no longer in hell, God set up a rotation. Each angel would spend ten Earth years overseeing hell before the next would take their place. He exempted Lucifer from that rotation, stating that he’d done his duty and then some. He also exempted Ella for the reason that where she went Lucifer followed. Amenadiel was currently exempt due to his long stint there, but God hadn’t said when or if he would be added to the rotation again mainly because he hadn’t decided himself.


End file.
